Chapter 11: Is Life as Easy as Turning Over Your Hand?

Chapter 11: Is Life as Easy as Turning Over Your Hand?

Yamazaki Jihei was in a good mood.

He had seen too many girls like Kazama Sakura. At first they all seemed rebellious and unruly, refusing to submit or lower their heads no matter what.

Of course, when you hinted at it like that, she would definitely refuse no matter what. The rebellion in her heart was an instinct.

That momentary impulse would drive them to make perhaps very extreme choices.

Back when Yamazaki Jihei had not yet come to this school, he had once “accidentally” caused a girl to jump off a building because of this.

So he had accumulated quite a bit of experience.

He knew very well how to gradually break down a person’s defenses and make them give up resisting.

It was simple.

Just give them time.

First, choose a suitable target. Kazama Sakura fit the criteria perfectly. In this expensive private school, her grades were also declining.

On one hand, there was no need to worry that if her family learned the truth behind the matter, there would be any frightening backlash.

For example, he would never target a girl like Asagiri Rin, because a figure of that level was simply untouchable.

Powers like that were invisible hands hidden behind countless shadows. Someone insignificant like him could be crushed to death with a single finger.

But in front of a girl like Kazama Sakura, he became an insurmountable mountain.

It also helped that his uncle by marriage was the vice principal, allowing him to transfer in smoothly despite his young age.

Originally, he had not intended to “return to his old profession” so quickly, but what could he say? A girl like Kazama Sakura was simply too rare.

That unparalleled youthfulness, along with her pure temperament. He did not believe any man could remain unmoved by it.

Looking at it objectively, his own conditions were not lacking when it came to women. But Yamazaki Jihei had already grown tired of the materialistic women outside. They were either too easy to get, or filled with crafty schemes.

Only girls in schools possessed that fresh and beautiful quality, awakening an instinctive desire to stain and corrupt them.

As for that strange boy who had later barged into his office.

There was no need to take him seriously. Words like courage seemed to match well with a young man.

But life was life.

Not a movie.

Not a novel.

Those stories where good always triumphed over evil were ultimately nothing more than people’s beautiful wishes.

Why call them wishes?

Because that was not the normal state of this world.

What kind of storm could someone with an orphanage background possibly stir up? He believed that once Kazama Sakura calmed down, she would soon understand.

He was the only key to her predicament.

She would realize that if she showed the proper attitude, her scholarship would not be affected whether her grades improved or not.

Let him guess.

When would she take the initiative to come to his office again?

Or perhaps send him a text message?

Two days?

Three days?

Certainly no more than a week.

Time gradually eroded people’s courage, causing them to start rationally considering what outcome would be best.

That was why many negotiations had to be settled on the spot. More time could never be given, because delays brought unforeseen changes.

Feeling relaxed and completely free of pressure, Yamazaki Jihei cheerfully drove home.

On the way, he stopped at a nearby ramen shop and enjoyed a satisfying bowl of tonkotsu ramen

He even added a can of Kirin Ichiban.

Returning to his sixth floor apartment.

The apartment was not large, but the rent was expensive.

With his salary alone, it was not easy to afford, but he had some side businesses that made money very easily.

Holding a tablet, he sat down in a bathtub filled with hot water. The tablet was not for watching dramas. Instead, he opened the photo album and flipped through one blood-boiling photograph after another.

They were not pornographic pictures downloaded from the internet.

They were photographs he had personally taken.

While admiring them, he pondered.

“Who should I ask for money this month? Hmm... Xiaoxing? I already asked her last month.”

“Mmph, Nadeshiko? Hiss. I kind of miss her butt. It was like ocean waves...”

After casually throwing on a bathrobe, in a season like this and with such a good mood.

Yamazaki Jihei felt that a single bottle of beer was not enough.

So he opened the refrigerator and, between Yamazaki and Hibiki whisky, chose Yamazaki.

Yamazaki Jihei liked drinking Yamazaki.

That itself seemed like an amusing thing.

Humming a tune, carrying a nosing glass, and casually grabbing a handful of pine nuts.

He leaned against the balcony and took small sips while facing the richly painted night.

From this angle, overlooking the residential complex below, the gentle summer breeze seemed to intensify the lingering effect of the alcohol.

His mind repeatedly replayed the charms of various women, some young, some mature, each leaving endless aftertastes.

He thought.

He was merely a homeroom teacher at a private high school, yet he already lived this kind of life.

He could even brush against the edge of controlling other people’s destinies.

Then what about the true big shots of this city?

Of this country?

Damn it, they must be enjoying themselves tens of millions of times more than he was, right?

Unable to help himself, he stretched a hand toward the night sky.

“Life is as easy as turning over your hand...”

At that moment.

Yamazaki Jihei seemed to hear some kind of movement.

He turned his head and looked toward the living room.

Then his suspicious expression transformed into shocked disbelief.

The hand holding the wine glass began to tremble.

His pupils shook violently.

“Why are you here?!”

Beneath the night sky.

A scream tore through the air.

Then came a heavy fall.

Bang!

The girl whose cold nobility always radiated a natural aristocratic aura opened her jewel-like eyes.

She looked toward a young woman who had just closed the car door and taken her seat. The woman wore a professional suit, and her expression carried a soldier-like coldness.

“So what happened that caused such a commotion within the board of directors?”

“Miss. A teacher was found after falling from his rented apartment and has become a vegetative patient. Homicide is suspected, and it seems the police have already become involved.”

“What teacher?”

Asagiri Rin leaned against the leather-covered rear seat, her indifferent gaze fixed on her phone.

“A teacher from Class Three named Yamazaki Jihei. He is also Class Three’s homeroom teacher. The disturbance is probably because his uncle by marriage is the school’s vice principal. He keeps insisting that he will fully cooperate with the police to find the real culprit who harmed Yamazaki Jihei.”

“Class Three... isn’t there someone named Yatsuno Gen?”

The female driver in front froze for a moment before recalling.

“There does seem to be a boy by that name...”

“What is the board’s current attitude?”

“They say they want to thoroughly investigate the culprit and fully cooperate with the police investigation...”

“What a joke.”

Asagiri Rin raised her eyes and looked forward coldly.

“How can something like this be connected to the school? If he falls from a building at home, does the school have to take responsibility too? Pass down the word. Reduce the influence of this matter as much as possible. Do not let it involve the school.”

“But the vice principal’s side...”

“Give him compensation money in the name of condolences. If he keeps dragging the school into this, or even dares to drag students into it, then make him get lost. There are plenty of people who want that vice principal position.”

“I understand.”

The female driver immediately got out of the car and went to make a phone call.

The young girl sitting quietly inside the vehicle concealed that brief moment of unusual coldness.

She turned off her phone screen.

Reflected upon it was that exquisitely beautiful face, cold to the extreme.

She thought of something.

From her schoolbag, she took out a small paper airplane.

It was old.

Even beginning to yellow with age.

“...”

Softly, she sighed.

The window reflected her face.

Like a glacier that had never melted for ten thousand years finally encountering its first ray of sunlight.

The gentleness in her eyes was a softness no one had seen since the day she returned to this family.